Dr. Valorie McAlpin
University of Maryland College Park

Biography:

Valorie F. McAlpin was born in 1953 in Lake Lure, NC. Dr. McAlpin completed her doctorate in adult education in 1997 at North Carolina State University. Her dissertation examined the impact of selected factors on the academic performance on on-line and face-to-face students. With a master's degree in educational media from NC A&T State University and a B.A. in French and English from NC Central University, she is currently associate dean for Communications and Information Technology with the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Maryland at College Park. Prior to this position, she served as director of agricultural communications for the School of Agriculture at NC A&T State University in Greensboro.

With active interests in the fields of distance learning and information technology, Valorie has served on the ADEC program panel since 1994. She has written and presented several papers on issues related to new technologies, new teaching and learning models for distance education, digital inclusion, and the future of agricultural communications. She is currently serves as a Co-PI for the NSF funded Advanced Internet Satellite Extension Project with the ADEC consortium.

Since joining the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Maryland in 1999, she has reorganized the communications and information technology resources into a single entity, which serves the entire College. She also created an Office of Distance Learning supported by a faculty advisory committee and has awarded development funds for pilot distance education projects.

International interests include collaboration with the University of Fort Hare in South Africa to assist in developing a distance curriculum in agricultural economics. South African linkages also exist with the University of Zululand and the University of the North.

Valorie is a former president of her professional association, Agricultural Communicators is Education (ACE) where she received an Award of Excellence for her work in information technology. She has also received awards for Ways to Grow, a video series funded by the Kellogg Foundation, designed to introduce small-scale farmers to alternative agricultural enterprises.